The Inevitable: Collide
by aprrayn
Summary: CloudxYuna, Clouna. Yuna is tempted to succumb to dreams, to escape from the possibility of Sin's return. All for his voice. She reaches for him and he for her. Continue? Please review chapter three: Cloud is missing something. He finds it... Her.
1. Chapter 1  Falling the Opposite Way

**author's notes:** _This is a CloudxYuna, Clouna or whatever you want to call it. So, this is fanfiction about a romance between Cloud and Yuna. I hope you will respect my efforts at this and not bash the pairing. I truly believe they would be a wonderful couple and deserve someone special after all they've been through._

_Please comment and let me know if I should continue! I am already writing chapter 2 but I'm still uncertain. I would love to because there are not enough CloudxYuna fanfics!_

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**The Inevitable: Collide**

_Chapter 1: Falling the Opposite Way_

She had decided to rest her eyes for a few minutes after her friends left. The rosy sky was lit by the fleeting sunset over the beach, her cozy bedroom lit in oranges and red hues like spreading flames.

Yuna had to suffer through another lecture from her friends and felt exhausted physically and emotionally.

Not that she didn't appreciate their concern…she didn't know what she would do if they weren't there with her, especially at a time like now.

Although the comment from Rikku about "that time of the month" did not cheer her mood up as they sat her down in the sand. Earlier that evening… Rikku and Paine had taken her away from everyone else at the barbeque for some heart to heart, girl to girl or something like that. "What's wrong, guys?" she asked as she laid her paper plate on the bench. The two other girls took her by her elbows and began to pull her towards the water's edge. "Rikku! What's—I want to watch the boys' blitzball game! Paine, what's going on?"

They sat at her sides and fell silent. The sun was beginning to lower in the sky when Rikku blurted out about her monthly cycles. "No, it's not that time of the month. Why are you guys asking?"

Paine's ruby eyes focused on her toes digging in the sand. Rikku was staring her with such an expression…she didn't like it when such a perky and happy girl looked so...so…sad. She was sad for her. "Yunnie," Rikku began, tucking a braid out of her face, "Were you having fun with us over there?"

Yuna looked surprised. "Of course I was! You two aren't?" Yuna asked.

Rikku kept that same expression. Paine still wouldn't look at her. "How can we help you, Yuna, if you don't want to talk about…"

"At least be truthful with us. Don't ever wear that fake smile again." Pain finally spoke up. Yuna turned to her other side where the girl was looking at her determinedly. "Please, Yuna…we're just worried about you." Paine sighed with a more tired tone.

Yuna quickly faced the horizon afraid that they would see emotions swirling in her different colored eyes. One could show them she was happy and moving on…the other would betray her pitiful dreaming and mourning. She shut them and gripped the sand in her palms, flowing out like water from her fingers. Just tell them, tell them about the dreams, Yuna! Open your mouth and say it!

Say it, come on, you can do it! Say: Sin is back.

She opened her eyes and her friends gave her reassuring eyes. They reassured her but it reverberated in her head. Sin is back. Why did she have to make her friends worry so? Sin is back. What will her other friends say when they've been away from their get-together? Sin is back.

She wanted to sleep…sleep this time, no dreaming. No dreams.

Sin is back.

Crystal, piercing turquoise eyes entered her mind. Sin is back. "I hope you two are happy…" Sin is… "I still think about you…" Sin… "Aerith…Zack…where…?"

She shook her head. For weeks now she had begun to doze off during the day, not just the night anymore. But it was different, nightmares of Sin…Guado… In the day, her friends would find her standing in front of her breakfast table, eyes closed, and a faint smile on her petal lips… "Are you blushing?" Rikku once asked, startling her from her daydream.

Blushing?

Her mind was tempted to these daydreams…she couldn't focus… She closed her eyes to hear a tender and heart-felt word from her mysterious dream friend. Yuna lived for the voice that knew her suffering and her regret…her fears and her nightmares…

"Thank you, for your comfort, for your words…", "Tidus is close to me, I feel it, but he is still not here,", "Will I ever see him again?", "What do I do…Sin could come back,", were some of the things that she would tell her stranger. They never directly spoke, no face to her dream phantom. She wasn't even sure if he could hear her talking to them. They would just voice whatever was on their mind, their troubles. It was his voice that solely comforted her.

When Yuna had promised to talk to her fellow Gullwigs the next day so they could enjoy the blitzball game (with a hyper Wakka who had practically washed his face in the barbeque sauce), they left her alone and joined her laughing as they ran up to choose sides of the game.

Now here she was, the sun completely set behind the horizon and white stars dotting the black velvet sky…dreading, fearing the nightmares that would plague her once she succumbed to sleep.

"I just want to talk to you again," she murmured as she fought back tears. Who was she talking about? Tidus? Her mysterious dream stranger?

Fighting no longer, she wanted to get this over with so she shut her eyes nervously and felt the tugs of another dream take her away…

She felt the wind pushing against her swiftly, determined to escape from under her not wanting to hold her up. She opened her eyes slightly and saw the large dais in the sky become smaller and smaller. Would they catch her this time? No…they won't. This was her nightmare and she wouldn't be caught or saved, not like last time.

I have been so foolish, she thought angrily to herself. Fear was gathering in her stomach as well as a headache from falling as she continued to go down…down…

She wanted to remover her arms crossed across her chest, the fine white silk of the wedding dress fluttering around her legs, almost attempting to fly and escape her impending doom at the bottom. The veil was still on her head and it made her surroundings hazy in its gossamer fabric. She wanted to reach out, try to grab hold onto anything that would stop her fall.

It was hopeless…

"Alone," she whispered as tears began to fly from her eyes. She watched them dance in the air above her as she fell faster than them. "Alone, no one to help me…"

_No, not alone…_

Her eyes widened. _Tidus._ "TIDUS!" she screamed as she began to try moving again. No use. "Tidus, please!"

Silence.

"Tidus?"

Nothing.

She held a tight sob that threatened to pierce the darkening sky that fell with her as she plunged into a black abyss. This will be over soon, she thought, this is just a nightmare. I'll wake up. I will. I must wake up, she thought desperately as she shut her eyes from the nightmare around her.

"Falling…" She opened her eyes at the voice._ Not Tidus._ "I've lost them all…" It was him. "Aerith, forgive me…" …from her dreams.

She craned her neck to see something approaching her…or as she fell, approaching them. She wasn't sure which way it was. As she fell closer to him, she noticed he was moving too, falling in the opposite direction. Her mind was racing against time, she knew she had to be fast… She needed to call out to him, reach for him.

"Not alone…" she merely whispered from an attempt at a scream. She had meant to yell, wave her arms, scream, but she couldn't. From her efforts, a whisper resulted.

The whisper caught him.

He looked ahead of him, towards where he was falling and saw her.

Their eyes met; turquoise clashing with her blue and green eyes.

"I'm not alone…" he managed to whisper back. And Yuna heard him loud and clear.

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_Please leave a review! I would greatly appreciate it!!! Tell me if I should continue!_

_Now, time for shameless spamming of CloudxYuna goodness:_

fan music videos are too beautiful for words and show how lovely a possible romance between these two would be!

They are on youtube:

BaltheirKingofSkiez's Clouna - The Mix Tape

TagMog's Cloud/Yuna - Angels

I beg you to check them out! I have not seen any CloudxYuna fanart yet. I would like to start some... 

_So...um...thanks for putting up with me! Please review! I hope you enjoyed Chapter 1!_


	2. Chapter 2 Don't Let Go

**Author's notes: **_Here goes chapter 2! I forgot the disclaimer in the first chapter. I'M SO SORRY!_

_So…_

_**I do not own any of the characters related to the Final Fantasy Role Playing Games!!! They are all by Square Enix!**_

_Phew…please accept my apologies and I hope you'll leave a review on your thoughts of the story so far!_

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**In the last chapter:**

"_Not alone…" she merely whispered from an attempt at a scream. She had meant to yell, wave her arms, scream, but she couldn't. From her efforts, a whisper resulted._

_The whisper caught him._

_He looked ahead of him, towards where he was falling and saw her._

_Their eyes met; turquoise clashing with her blue and green eyes._

"_I'm not alone…" he managed to whisper back. And Yuna heard him loud and clear._

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**The Inevitable: Collide**

_Chapter 2: Don't Let Go_

Cloud could feel his hair whipping in every direction, the strange void approaching closer to him as he continued to fall. He had been so tempted to rest his eyes…just to hear her beautiful voice once again. He had promised himself he would do everything possible to find the owner to the voice next time he got the chance and he had thought that chance was NOW.

He wanted to talk to her about his problems face and face, not to the swirling mass of lights anymore. Not to the ghost of his "dream-mate". He longed to ask her so many things, about the island home she talked of, the evil she knew as Sin…the man she loved named Tidus.

Here he was, not in a pleasant dream with her but in some nightmare where he had chased Aerith flying off the edge of an altar tower. He had been stupid enough to give chase even as the ground beneath him couldn't stretch out for him any longer.

So he fell.

He had been falling for a while, wanting it to end, for the spirit of the flying Aerith to swoop him in her arms and tell him everything would be okay. Why? He always wondered why out of everyone, it had to be her? To be Aerith? Why Zack? Why Aerith… Why?

"_Not alone…"_

Her voice like twinkling chimes in the wind echoed to him over the howling wind in his ears…but just a soft whisper.

An angel…

His eyes widened at the falling princess in white, the veil of sheer only enhancing an ethereal touch to her beauty, the long white gown billowing around her like excited doves…flying toward him. No, she was falling towards him.

He gazed at her, his heart thumping in his chest rapidly as he noticed they were coming closer to each other. Yes, they were getting very close now. "No, not alone…" he whispered. The dancing lights in her unique eyes gave his breath a pause of awe when she heard his voice.

Her face surrounded by soft strands of auburn silk was tied up under her veil, adorned with jewelry that did little to pretty her already gorgeous face. She stared at him as he stared at her, curious and hopeful. The same way he felt at the moment.

But they were not slowing down as they approached each other in the middle. He feared they would pass each other.

A silken gloved hand…

"Please, reach for me." Whispered the girl, pleading and desperate.

He made no answer as he extended his own leather gloved hand, the first real movement he had been able to make since falling off the altar. Yes, he would be able to reach her. If he didn't, he would miraculously sprout his own wings and go after her, he was sure of it.

There was that exact moment where their hands neared and the second where the tips of their fingers were mere inches apart…he only focused on her face. And then he couldn't tear his mako eyes from her. The terror of not being able to reach her filled him in that one second, the fright of seeing her leave him as they'd fall farther apart into unknown voids.

I will take her hand. I can reach for it.

_Reach._

Cloud gasped silently. The stark contrast of her white glove with his black one, her slender fingers holding his tenderly…it was just perfect in its complementary design, its fit and naturalness.

Their free hands met so they formed a ring between them.

Cloud's heart leapt to his throat as a force threatened to rip their hands apart. No, he wouldn't let go! He wasn't going to fall from her!

A small terrified cry escaped her lips. "No!"

They were going to loose each other.

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Yuna's grip tightened as his did the same, both fearing the same nightmare within the nightmare. "Please, don't let go!" she cried, more tears beginning to float from her eyes. He met her gaze again and she saw the panicking emotions mirrored in his face. But he gave her an affirmative nod.

"I won't let go, I promise." He said firmly.

If they would let go, where would they fall? To a paradise? To a hell?

Her eyes widened as she felt his arms give way, a startled gasp of fright involuntarily escaped.

Then those arms wrapped around her gently.

She closed his eyes as she felt her tired frame rest against his, the tears still falling from her eyes. She moved her arms and wrapped them around him in turn, clinging as though he was her life float, her only anchor to anything sane. "…don't…let…go" she whispered weakly, muffled by the fabric of his shirt against her lips.

He only hugged her tighter in response.

His left arm and pants leg draped in black flapped along with her white gown, dancing around their legs together in unison. What direction were they falling towards together now?

Together.

Her fear as they fell was no longer merciless, it subsided a little as she focused on the feel of the grooved, cerulean cloth against her cheek. The feathers around her gown moved in motion with the black material like a rapid dove's wings beating against raven ones, both fervent from an escape out of the prison of their shared nightmare.

Yuna gripped the material of his shirt as she felt a sudden wave of uneasiness, the air around them slowing down. Her partner in this desperate fall moved his head around them, analyzing the abyss they had been left in.

"We stopped falling."

Yuna thought them the most beautiful three words she had heard in months. She looked up from hiding her face in his shirt and noticed they were now just floating together in nothing. The air had become thick and their bodies were pressed against invisible liquid. The veil on her head floated behind her as the unusual pink string tied around his forearm fluttered against her shoulder.

"So we have," she managed to say after a while.

She turned her head and found herself now face to face with the stranger.

No, not a stranger, not just anyone…this was the voice that she had longed to speak to in person for so long now.

He had a strong face, a face that hid emotions but when they did give someone the pleasure of finally seeing them…he turned every expression into a work of art. Blond spiky hair that stuck in different directions, powerful in their structure yet gentle to touch.

She had lifted her gloved hand to his hair unaware of the act.

His turquoise eyes continued to meet her own green and blue eyes. Princely, she thought instantly. He dressed in dark clothes but there was no mistaking the light that was lit inside of him.

The air glowed eerily.

"How did you come to be here?" he asked her.

She stared at him, still memorizing his face. "I fell asleep. I knew a nightmare was coming." She sighed softly, deciding to lay her head back against his shirt.

His lips moved against her veiled head. "What is your name?" he whispered.

"Yuna," she responded. "What is yours?" she whispered in the same tone as his.

She felt him shift his head so his cheek lay against her head. "Cloud," He paused, brief images of what he should be doing and where he should really be ran through his head. "I fell asleep...fell asleep staring at the flowers." he chuckled lightly. The noise came pleasing to Yuna's ears. "I was supposed to be on a job from Reno," he muttered.

He felt her smile against his chest.

"I just wanted to be over with the nightmare," Yuna said softly. "I wanted to let it be and then wake up…but…" Cloud instinctively held her closer as he felt her shoulders shake with a silent sob. "They did not end with the day…"

"They will end," he reassured her.

Yuna nodded. "They did…temporarily…only when…when…" Her voice faded.

Cloud felt a hard surface land against his back. Colorful lights began to dance on Yuna's white dress. What was going on? He attempted to hold her tighter when her arms around him began to dissipate when the colorful hues danced across them.

"What--?" he gasped.

He stared at her face frantically, at the melancholy smile she wore, tears flowing against the wet streaks left from earlier. She leaned closer to him "You're waking up…" she merely breathed into his ear gently. She continued her sad smile as he tried to hug her, hoping she would stop disappearing. "You can't, Cloud," she murmured as she laid her head against his chest again. She was beginning to become transparent and his hands no longer felt the slim waist of the young woman.

"No, Yuna…" Cloud whispered.

She looked up at him. She wanted a final look at him. "They ended when I heard your voice, Cloud, only yours." she said wearily, her eyes closing as she was almost gone completely.

"Thank you," she said, smiling through her tears that escaped her closed eyes.

Cloud studied her soft expression as she was lying against him comfortingly one second and then gone the next. She had been replaced by the glittering lights of the abandoned church's stained glass windows. The ex-SOLDIER sat up; half believing she would still be there with him on the pew, the pew he had wanted to take a quick nap on. But he was alone in the church save the flowers still thriving among the ruins.

"Yuna…" His whisper echoed in his ears.

The duty at hand flashed through his head again, interrupting his thoughts of the dream girl that had fallen into his arms and he into hers. Cloud knew he had a job to do. He still longed to fall into another dream and into the sanctuary of her arms…and she into his, as the haven he hoped he had been for her too. But he still had a job to do.

He stood now with a new found energy and took his broadsword into his gloved hand. He gripped it tightly as he left the threshold of the church, the Buster Sword's wide blade gleaming in the white light…

_The stark contrast of her white glove with his black one… _The image floated in his head. Her voice whispered in his ears. The feel of her arms clinging to him…as though he was her savior warmed him. It gave him strength for what was ahead.

…and the feeling of her gossamer veil tingled permanently between his sword and his glove.

He was still reaching for her. He hadn't let go. If he didn't, he wasn't alone.

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_Please leave a review! Thank you for reading chapter 2!!!_

_Okay, so I'll explain this. This is at a time maybe a year or two after FFX-2 and Yuna is still mourning over her lost Tidus. But for Cloud, this takes place somewhere near the beginning of FFVII: Advent Children so he hasn't defeated big ol' baddie Sephiroth or Kadaj, Loz and Yazoo yet._


	3. Chapter 3 I'm Falling For You

**Author's notes: **_This chapter is a songfic to the song "What You Never Know" sung by Hayley Westenra (well, that's the version I listen to the most, at least)._

_**I do not own any of the characters related to the Final Fantasy Role Playing Games!!! They are all by Square Enix! And the song is by Hayley Westenra and the good people at her recording station, I assume. Geez, that girl can really sing a song!**_

_Please remember to leave a review! Please! Please!_

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**In the last chapter:**

_The stark contrast of her white glove with his black one… The image floated in his head. Her voice whispered in his ears. The feel of her arms clinging to him…as though he was her savior warmed him. It gave him strength for what was ahead._

…_and the feeling of her gossamer veil tingled permanently between his sword and his glove._

_He was still reaching for her. He hadn't let go. If he didn't, he wasn't alone._

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**The Inevitable: Collide**

_Chapter 3: I'm Falling for You_

A couple of months later…

Everything seemed more difficult for Cloud Strife as he had at one part started to sleep in until very late, that is, after the defeat of Sephiroth and Kadaj's group. So the young man could savor a nice rest in peace even if he was used as a trampoline by some of the kids when they caught him taking mid-day naps when he babysat.

"Why do you sleep so much? You sleep like an old man."

Twitch. Migraine. So much for savoring a nap or peaceful silence.

Our favorite blond hero rubbed his head lazily as he sat around Tifa's tavern. Tifa was out grocery shopping or some other business for the tavern and little tots from the ages of mere months to at least ten scampered about.

Once he asked himself why they would agree to care for some many kids. When Yuffie was around, it was taking care of twenty three year olds sometimes…depending on the girl's mood that day. Sometimes she acted like a six year old nowadays. Boy, was she maturing fast. (It was in fact Reno who had commented that and had promptly received a nice "playful", using the word lightly, blow to the head.)

A six-month babe suckled on a bottle in his nap, intent on gurgling loudly when he tried to doze off.

A toothless grin met his stare. Yeah, he couldn't resist the little tykes.

He had decided to help his friends out more when they had anything on hand for him when he wasn't running errands for Tifa or babysitting like he was now. Before, he had thought he really knew his friends…but who the hell knew Vincent liked sweets?

That one day of baking for eight hours straight had been interesting…

And the face of Yuna would come up again…not as much as it had when he had gotten the dream months ago. Maybe it was because she hadn't visited his dreams since their last parting.

So, he decided, the sleeping would have to halt for a while. Maybe now, they were both free from whatever was holding them in their prison of a nightmare.

But his mind continued to wander to her unique eyes, her face against his beating heart, her gloved hands…only every now and then.

Maybe this was best, now that they were better off than before, right? He had seen Aerith and Zack, their warm smiles that told him they were happy and happy for him… His depression and mourning had ended. Days were loud with the laughter of children and looking a lot brighter.

And yet…he would never found out how Yuna fared after their first face to face meeting…

_What you never know won't hurt you_

_  
What you never know won't lie_

Still, Cloud kept his promise. He would never let go, not completely. Every time he desired to have a nice sleep, he devoted his mind to finding Yuna because he knew somewhere in those depths, she was there waiting for him.

And he just wanted to know if she was happy now.

Was it foolish for him to continue this hope? This hope of seeing her once again?

She could have chosen not to see him again. But why would she? …she had forgotten about him?

…Tidus had returned to her?

He sighed as he gave a quick good bye to Tifa as she prepared the tavern for some partying that night. Cloud wanted to just go somewhere quiet and think a while.

The ex-SOLDIER knew not to make assumptions without clear evidence to support his ideas. Yuna hadn't forgotten him, not yet. She had not refused to see him, not yet. She was not content with her old beloved, not yet.

She did not leave him, not yet.

_What you never know won't desert you_

_  
What you never know won't say goodbye_

And he had not let go…not yet? Never.

And so, with this in mind, Cloud was happy, just not completely.

He passed people on the streets of Edge as they headed towards the direction he walked from. So he knew he would be alone where he was going.

But he could question himself, right, if not Yuna?

Wasn't he just winding his heart up again over another person he would just loose? Or…had he already lost her? Couldn't he accept it that it was a greater possibility that both of their nightmares had stopped and that they were both resuming their lives?

These days, Cloud is surrounded by friends and people who care about him and each other. It filled empty parts of him. But Yuna, even just her voice and words, they had filled everything else and more in him.

She couldn't be gone from him forever. Cloud had been a man of pure reason years ago, but people had shown him to be man of the heart over many different trials, people like his friends, the kids, Aerith, Yuna…

He found it hard to leave her, not when he had made a promise and an embrace on a second's thought. Those actions had resulted something that was yet to come, he knew it and he felt it.

"Yuna, I don't knew where you are right now…but I won't leave you."

_What you never know won't desert you_

_  
What you never know won't make you cry_

And it saddened him that these words might never be able to reach her.

_What you never know won't hurt you_

_  
What you never know won't li_e

Yuna was asleep. She was always asleep and she knew it.

…she hadn't woken up since she had met Cloud.

It seemed she had spent days dreaming of him as she was rocked in a current of silvery white strands, as though she were in the cradling arms of a mother. Voices spoke to her, some she recognized as aeons that waited to be unleashed, others just lives that had gone there…

…to the lifestream.

The lifestream is what she had come to know it to be called from the dimmed, almost hushed voices that spoke out of the river of lights.

And she would close her eyes when the voices decided to rest and she'd see the same man clad in blue and black gloves that had fit right in her own hands. He'd smile at her and she knew he was thinking about her, even in the day when he wasn't asleep. He never saw her in his dreams again but she could watch over him from where she was.

So she noticed when his thoughts of her began to grow less.

Her heart cried to her: but he still remembers. He won't forget.

_I'm falling for you…_

She began to grow restless of just keeping watch over the lifestream, as though she was waiting on someone to join her. She busied herself and fervently tried to remember every detail she had memorized when they had been together.

Then she would remember her friends in Besaid and remember they must be waiting for her. Did they think her dead when she wouldn't wake up? How would she ever get back to them? How much time had really passed since she decided to sleep after the barbeque party until where she floated now? Would she float here until she could remember nothing of Spira or even Cloud?

If she remembered Cloud's comfort when she was grieving over Tidus, she would forget neither.

He continued to be her life float.

_I'm falling for you…_

If she let go him, she'd have nowhere to go, no sanctuary from everything that was happening without reason around her. Without him…she…she…

She'd fall again.

_My heart's torn in two…_

_  
I'm falling for you…_

Cloud wouldn't be there to catch her.

Cloud approached the church, the setting sun bouncing rays of dying light through cracks and the colored windows. He halted when he saw someone at the entrance waiting for him.

He smiled at Cloud as if they were long lost friends. Sensing something strange about the church, Cloud quickly pulled his Buster Sword out and held it in front of him. What did this guy want with him?

Well, he definitely wasn't from Edge, or around Edge. Not with those clothes he was wearing. The overalls over a short, hooded, yellow shirt were very strange styles. But something captured Cloud with his green eyes… Tanned skin, sandy blond hair, Cloud couldn't shake this feeling of familiarity with this stranger.

He continued his wide smile and beckoned for Cloud to come inside the church.

"_Come look,"_ he merely mouthed to the confused spiky blonde.

Look?

Cloud sprinted towards the church and saw the young man's elated expression, even as Cloud was charging towards him with his broadsword. He took a side step and actually put himself in Cloud's way. His emerald eyes glittered, tempting him to take a swipe at him.

Cloud held out his hand to hold the guy and ram him into the wall, just to intimidate the punk, prankster, whatever he was.

And his hand went through him.

What?

He was now standing inside the church, the other guy no where to be seen. The sun was casting its last rays across the pews, shadows rapidly growing and stretching themselves across tiles and flowers.

And as Cloud stood tensely in the middle of the aisle, he noticed someone else was now in his path, someone standing at the opposite end of the church from him. Lights danced across the stained glass window above them until they were bathed in the rainbow illumination.

But this time, she did not disappear.

"Yuna…" he whispered as he made a dash down the aisle.

She smiled weakly at him, forced from exhaustion but sincere. He could tell, it reached her eyes…and his heart. His heart was making so much noise in his ears. Did the beating echo off the church walls, he wondered.

There she stood, half leaning against the wall, the same as she had appeared to him in the dream, only this time, they weren't falling towards each other. He was running towards her now.

Flowers had welcomed her arrival into the church and tickled her ankles as moisture and dew chilled her legs, dampening the white satin of her dress. She closed her eyes as she saw Cloud's approach towards her end of the church. Would she wake up as soon as he would place his arms around her? Would she return to watching the lifestream when she'd just as breathed in the scent of his clothes?

His rapid footsteps echoed around them and into her arms as the dark sky matched the darkness Yuna saw from her closed eyes. Night was here.

It was strange to be held after all that time, alone, talking to spirits long gone, after floating for days.

"_Will I wake up this time, Aerith?"_ she whispered faintly. Cloud held her at arm's length and studied her. Where did she hear that name from? From him?

"_No, you will stay with him now, Yuna,"_

"You will stay with me," Cloud whispered, oblivious to Aerith's comment.

She fell into his arms again. "Can I rest?"

He moved his arms to circle her more comfortably, from beneath her as he got to his feet. He carried her and she wrapped her own arms around his neck. The same cerulean shirt, grooved and beating, a beating heart beneath it…

"Yes, rest. I'll watch over you now."

_What you never know…unless you try…_

_I'm falling for you…_

Cloud lifted her easily and he sat with her resting against him. They were on the same pew he had woken up to sadly see she was no longer with him anymore. The young man removed the veil from her sleeping face. The same face, the same dress, the same voice…same Yuna.

_I'm falling for you…_

The sun was completely set behind the horizon… Was it the same sun that she looked at on her home in Besaid? They both didn't know.

And then they were both on the empty road surrounded by darkness. Cloud saw the last of the party people leave the inn.

He shifted the girl in his arms, if not only to make sure she was really there.

_I'm falling for you…_

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Sorry, sorry, this should have been at least two chapters! I just…couldn't stop writing. If parts drag, forgive me. I think I was trying to put too many things in at the same time. Eh. Please review! They would make me happy, if you care to know. 


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